Discrete consumers, small scale resource heterogeneity, and population stability

We present a consumer-resource model in which individual consumers subsist on a continuum of resource distributed over a very large number of small "b ite-sized" patches, each patch being sufficiently small that all its resour ce is eaten whenever a consumer visits. This form of consumer-resource inte raction forces a heterogeneous distribution of resource among the patches, and may dampen out the large amplitude, consumer-resource cycles that are p redicted by traditional models of well-mixed, spatially homogeneous systems . The resource equilibrium does not increase with enrichment, a prediction that distinguishes this model from models that invoke direct or indirect co nsumer density dependence as a stabilizing mechanism.